


Divided They Stand

by kickassanakin



Series: justice will prevail, you say? [5]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, I don't have a funny tag this time this one's mostly sad, White Lead Disease, marine AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 17:24:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16580834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kickassanakin/pseuds/kickassanakin
Summary: Law is dying, and they don't know what to do.





	Divided They Stand

**Author's Note:**

> hee hee i can't stop making him _feel things_

Trafalgar D. Water Law was almost thirteen years old and he only had six months left to live.

Doflamingo and Rosinante hadn’t announced Law’s condition to the greater marine community, though Sengoku had known immediately.

As soon as he had brought Law to the marine headquarters, he introduced the boy to Rosi, then took them both to Sengoku and came clean. Not about what he was _doing_ in the North Blue, exactly… just what he had found there.

Sengoku, fleet admiral as he was, had been put in a terrible position. But he didn’t get mad at the brothers like they had expected. He had just smiled.

“Doflamingo,” he had said, which always startled the young man a bit -- only Sengoku and Rosi ever called him by his full name, “I’m proud of you.”

A bright, hot feeling bloomed in his chest. He looked down at the scarred-up little boy. “It was nothing.”

But two years later and it was starting to feel like something.

Law, for his intense and sullen nature, was the best kid Doffy had ever known. He was brilliant, and snappy, and he wasn’t scared of the Donquixote brothers.

Well, most people weren’t scared of Rosi. It was Doflamingo they feared. But Law had never been afraid of him.

Doflamingo would brag to anyone who could listen that within five minutes of knowing each other, Law had stabbed him. The boy hated this story and always grew a frown when Doffy laughed at it.

“Come on, it’s funny!” Doffy would say, careful not to clap Law on the back too hard.

“I could have killed you,” Law would mutter in response. “I know all the vital points in the human body.”

Doffy would always laugh extra hard at that.

At first, the hate had been real. Law hated marines, hated the government, hated anything having anything to do with the death of his country. And most of all, he hated Doflamingo for bringing him to the place where all the other things he hated intersected.

Over time, though, with help from Rosi and Sengoku, Law opened up a little more. He was still a mean little kid, but his bark had no bite.

He’d sit in Doflamingo’s office and eat loud, crunchy food just to bother the older man. He’d interrupt Doffy’s important meetings just because he could and he knew he wouldn't get into major trouble. He’d throw food at Doffy in the cafeteria, though most times he missed (until Rosi taught him how to fix his aim, then he got a lot better).

Law was like him. Better than him, for never taking a life. But Doffy remembered his own pain and rage and fear, still so close to the surface even after all these years, and he could see it reflected back at him from the eyes of this sick little boy.

Law didn't deserve it, but Doffy loved him.

Nobody deserved Doffy’s love. It was dark and twisted and it made him do terrible things. He knew that. But he still loved, whether he wanted to or not. He loved Rosi and he loved Law, and he couldn't make those feelings go away even if he wanted them to. They were his family.

But the good times didn’t last forever.

The white patches, once so easily covered by long sleeves, had crept down Law’s arms to end splotchily at his wrists. He had to apply foundation every morning to cover up the spots that had shown up on his face. He got tired more easily, and no longer had the strength to bother Doflamingo or Rosinante while they were working, or even read the books the brothers had procured for him over the years.

Sengoku had siphoned a small number of medical funds away to research a cure for White Lead Disease, but hadn’t once come close to a cure within the whole of two years.

They were getting desperate.

One night, Doffy and Rosi sat outside, sharing a drink as they watched the night-dark sea lap at the shore. Law had been put to bed long ago.

“How are we supposed to help him if we can’t even get a doctor to look at him?” Rosi said as he took the bottle and tipped it to his lips. “This isn’t enough.”

Doffy shook his head and sighed. “There might be something on the underground market. I can keep a eye out.”

Rosi finished his swig and made a face. “How long will that take?”

Doflamingo took the bottle from his brother. “I don’t know.” He took a long drink.

“I can’t wait around like this. It’s driving me crazy.” Rosi, no longer holding on to the bottle, ran his hands through his hair. “I have to do _something_.”

“I know how you feel, but we _can’t_ do anything.” Doflamingo wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “What’s left for us to do, take him to every doctor in the Grand Line?”

Rosi said nothing. Instead, he took the bottle back from Doflamingo and took another drink.

“There has to be a way to save him. A devil fruit or something.” Doflamingo closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “I just have to keep looking.”

_And while you look, what do I do?_ Rosi didn’t say it, but Doffy knew his younger brother was thinking it.

“He’s losing hope. He needs someone to be there for him.” More often than not, his job required massive amounts of time from him. He hadn’t been able to spend much time with the boy lately -- Doflamingo was too busy searching for that miracle cure.

Rosi took a deep, shuddering breath.

When Doflamingo felt too much, he would explode in a flurry of emotion. Anyone who was anyone would know he had somehow reached his limit. But Rosi was different. He would get sucked into his emotions and get lost in his own mind. When that happened, and sometimes even when it didn’t, he would go nonverbal. It was normal, natural, something that never needed an explanation. He handed Doffy the bottle.

Rosi turned to his brother with tears in his eyes. _I won’t sit around and do nothing_ . He signed his words with more force than necessary. _I can’t just wait_.

Doffy’s hands itched to sign back, but he couldn’t stand the thought of putting that bottle down. “Being there for him isn’t ‘doing nothing’.” He took a sip.

_It’s not enough. I can’t watch him die, Doffy_. Rosi used his name sign, something he didn’t often do -- it gave him the same shock that he felt whenever someone spoke his full name.

“Then what do you want to do?” Doflamingo didn’t like the sour feeling in his chest. He didn’t like fighting with his brother.

_I’ll figure it out._ Rosi’s face was pained. _When I figure it out, I’ll let you know_.

But Doflamingo already knew what Rosinante had planned. Or at least, he had an idea of it.

He may be dangerous, and scary, and a little unhinged, but most people didn’t understand just how smart he was. He did well enough in marine-mandated classes, but his true strength lay in knowing _people_. In reading them, finding their weaknesses, discovering their lies.

Rosi had never once lied to Doflamingo, up until that moment.

They both knew it was a lie. But Doffy couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it. “It’s late,” he said instead, “I’m going to try and get some sleep.”

_When will I see you again,_ he didn’t say.

_Please don’t leave,_ he didn’t say.

_I don’t know how to be a good person without you_ , he didn’t say.

“You should, too.” He said, and then walked back to their room. He took of his glasses and got into his bed, knowing that Rosi would not be coming back that night.

* * *

He woke the next morning to his den-den mushi ringing. After rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he grabbed a hold of the snail and answered. “Hello?”

“Doflamingo!” Sengoku’s worried semblance barked at him, “Where’s Rosinante? Where’s Law?”

Doflamingo felt that sour pit in his stomach yawn open. Even though he had known what was going to happen, it didn’t feel very good to have it confirmed. “I don’t know.” That was, in itself, truthful. He didn’t know _where_ they were, just what they were doing. But the half-truth still felt bad in his mouth. “Off to find a cure.”

Sengoku cursed on the other end of the line, which would have been amusing if Doffy didn’t feel like a sack of bricks had been hung around his neck. “That idiot.”

“I couldn’t stop him.” Doflamingo said tiredly. _I wasn’t going to stop him_.

In a way, Doflamingo wished he could do what Rosi had done. Run off with the kid. Run away from obligation and duty and just do what he knew was right.

But he was taking his own kind of direct action. He knew if he kept at it, kept researching, kept looking, he could find something that would help cure Law.

He couldn’t let himself think of any other alternatives.

“What are you going to do?” Doflamingo asked. Rosi was in trouble, there was no doubt about that. But would Sengoku drag him back home?

Sengoku sighed. “I can only cover up so much for you two.” His voice was world-weary, but Doflamingo could see the small smile reflected back at him from the den-den. “Rosinante is away on an undercover mission, I suppose.”

Doflamingo felt a little smile of his own twitch at his lips. “Yeah, I guess so.”

* * *

It was late the next night when Doflamingo’s den-den rang again. He reached out and answered it immediately, the rest of his office work be damned.

“Rosi.” He couldn’t help the way relief made his voice hoarse. “You’re okay.”

“Rosinante’s not up to talking right now.” Law’s tired semblance blinked up at him. “But he says he wants to take me to some doctors.”

“Yeah.” Doflamingo felt a hot, uncomfortable thrum in his chest. “Find that cure.”

There was a pause, enough time for Rosi to sign and Law to translate. “That’s the plan,” he said at last, “We won’t stop until we find it.” Law laughed. “Or if I die. Whichever comes first.”

Doffy smiled. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.” Law insisted. “... We’ll probably be gone for a while.”

“I know. You do what you have to do. Sengoku and I will make sure nothing too crazy happens without you two.” Doflamingo felt a tear prick at his eye. He couldn’t let it fall, not there. “Just get back home safe, okay?”

“He says we will.” Law said, his voice a little quieter than before. “He says he’ll bring me home. He promises.”

“Good luck.” Doflamingo took a deep breath. “Call me with any updates.”

There was a slight muffled noise, and then two taps on the other end of the receiver.

“Bye, Rosi. Law.” _I love you_.

The den-den clicked as Rosi hung up.

For all that he was, strength and anger and smarts combined, he felt like he had gotten the wind knocked out of him. He sat back in his chair and let this unfamiliar feeling wash over him.

Something was wrong with his heart. It throbbed against his ribs as if it were trying to escape. Tears clouded his already limited vision, but he furiously blinked them away.

He hadn’t gotten to say goodbye to Law. He hadn’t even said goodbye to Rosi, not really.

How was he going to make it without them? How would he not go fucking crazy and rip someone’s head off? What would he do when the nightmares came back?

He took a deep, steadying breath. He took off his glasses -- something he only ever did before bed, but desperate times called for desperate measures -- and massaged his temples. He closed his eyes and just… breathed.

He trusted Rosi to do the right thing. Doflamingo didn’t know what the right thing was. How could he?

All he could do was support his little brother as best he could. He would make sure they found a cure for Law’s disease, and he wouldn’t think of any other alternative.

He would storm into Marie Geoise and destroy all the world nobles if it meant saving Trafalgar Law’s life. That would probably be easier than staying behind and researching and waiting to hear from Rosinante.

But he would do it, and Law would live, and they could all come home safely.

He couldn’t think of any other alternative. There were too many things he had left unsaid.

He cleared his throat and sat up at his desk again. He had work to do, and as much as he didn’t want to do it, he’d already given Sengoku enough of an excuse to worry. His workspace was generally an organized mess, everything right where he knew he could find it, but to most outsiders it looked like a small office supply bomb had gone off right on his desk.

Rosi liked to make fun of him for that.

He shook that thought out of his head and opened his desk drawer to pull out a pad of paper. He would head to the library and take a look at some books about devil fruits.

But there was something already written on the first piece of paper, and it wasn’t in Doflamingo’s chicken-scratch handwriting.

He recognized the tight, neat lettering anywhere. Rosi had left him a note.

It was only a few words, and it wasn’t a sentimental goodbye. All the same, a wave of hope him like a brick.  

“ _Ope-Ope fruit?_ ”

He didn't know what that was, but Rosi himself wrote it down. It had to be something that could help.

He could find it. He _would_ find it.

Law was going to live.

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think!~


End file.
